As a psychiatrist, I perform quite a bit a therapy along with medication management. As a matter of fact, therapy continues to be one of my most powerful tools. In training in this profession, they say it is not complete unless you receive therapy yourself and I could not agree more. Having received therapy and as a parent, therapy is tremendously helpful. Being a parent is one of the most challenging endeavors ever. It doesn’t end when the child turns 18 either, it is a commitment for life. You are in it for the long haul. It is physically challenging with much running, chasing and restless nights. You have less leisure to devote the time and labor for healthy eating. It is mentally taxing with the crying and basically training another human being from scratch about how to thrive in the world. Therapy helps you develop tools to manage stress and optimize day to day function. I won’t get into the different kinds of therapy that focus on emotion regulation versus more adaptive thinking. But basically you are learning to experience day to day life so you have a better quality of life and it puts you in a more resilient spot for your little one. This is not just so you have better energy and stress tolerance. Your little one learns from observing you. They see how mom and dad interact with people, work through conflict, work under pressure and adversity and learn to copy some of your tools! That is incredibly cool.